Saturday, February 22, 2014

Canadian killed in Somalia deeply involved with community in Ottawa

Mohamud Hersi Abdulle

A Canadian who was killed in a terrorist attack in Somalia is being remembered for his deep ties to Ottawa’s Somali community.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has confirmed that Mohamud Hersi Abdulle, a former intelligence commander and an aide to Somalia’s prime minister, died in the attack Friday on the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu by nine members of the terrorist group al-Shabab.

Baird issued a statement saying the Canadian citizen had returned to his native Somalia to work with the prime minister.

Abdulle had a long history with the Somali-Canadian community in Ottawa, where he worked as a school teacher and social worker, said Abdirizak Mohamud, who knew him.

Mohamud said Abdulle had also been involved with the Youth Services Bureau, a community group, and helped Somali-Canadian youth with their homework and also taught them the Somali language.

“Every Somali kid, most of them, they loved (him). There’s nobody else they knew like that,” Mohamud said Saturday.

Abdulle also helped adult members of the local Somali community with transferring money to family back home, Mohamud said, and on trips he took every few years to the East African country Abdulle would help those relatives with resources such as food and water.

“Everybody liked him and everybody’s very sorry. Some of them, they’re calling me for hours to say has that really” happened, Mohamud said.

He was “the kind of guy — 24 hours, all the time, working for the community.”

Abdulle’s wife and child remain in Ottawa, said Mohamud.

Early media reports had said Abdulle was an American — a second government official was also killed in the attack.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was unharmed in the attack that saw all nine militants killed.

The president called the assault a “media spectacular” by a “dying animal.”

The attack underscores a worrying new trend in Mogadishu: That despite a period of relative calm following al-Shabab’s ouster from Mogadishu in August 2011, militants have carried out a series of deadly assaults in recent weeks that have seen the city hit with mortar fire and pitched battles.

Weapons meant for the Somali army could have been used by the militants in Friday’s attack. A confidential U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea reported this month that the country’s military is selling weaponry in markets where the al-Qaida-linked militants buy weapons.

In at least one case weapons were sold by a military commander directly to an al-Shabab commander, the confidential report said.

Friday’s attack against the compound where the president and prime minister live began with a car bomb explosion, followed by an assault by gunmen on palace guards, said police Capt. Mohamed Hussein. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked group, claimed responsibility.

“President just called me to say he’s unharmed. Attack on Villa #Somalia had failed. Sadly some lives lost. I condemn strongly this terrorism,” the U.N. representative to Somalia, Nick Kay, said on Twitter. He added later: “The Somali people are tired of shootings, bombings and killings. It’s time for a new chapter in Somalia’s history.”

The Interior Ministry displayed the seven bloodied and dead bodies of the attackers and said two others blew themselves up. The wreckages of two car bombs lay nearby.

“Apart from media headlines, #Shabaab will achieve nothing from it,” a Twitter account run by the office of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said. ‘Don’t be fooled by this “media spectacular’. This is another act of desperation from a dying animal.”

Al-Shabab has been waging war in Somalia for years as it tries to oust a Western-backed government. Weakened from its apex of power, the militants are still able to launch vicious attacks.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” while the U.N. Security Council said it was “appalled.” Both paid tribute to Somali and African Union forces for repelling the attack.

The Security Council reaffirmed “that this and other acts of terrorism would not weaken their determination to support the peace and reconciliation process in Somalia.”

The secretary-general expressed concern that recent attacks by al-Shabab “are clearly aimed at destabilizing the country at a time when many efforts are being mobilized to restore peace and development,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Baird also condemned the attack in his statement and gave his condolences to Abdulle’s family.

“His death reminds us all of the great risks and sacrifices Canadians take around the world in support of greater peace and security,” Baird said.

A U.N. Monitoring Group report, published Feb. 6 and obtained by The Associated Press, found that many weapons given to Somalia’s military can no longer be accounted for, including rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and bullets. The Monitoring Group “has developed serious concerns that the 1,000 AK-47s delivered from Uganda” are no longer in government control, it said.

The report said that two separate clan-based power bases in the government are procuring weapons with a clan-based agenda that works against peace in Somalia, including by distributing weapons to clan militias. A sub clan of the president’s dominates weapons procurements and funnels them to Abgaal militia forces, it said.

“In addition, the Monitoring Group has also obtained documentary evidence corroborating information that a key adviser to the President, from his Abgaal subclan, has been involved in planning weapons deliveries to Al-Shabab leader Sheikh Yusuf Isse ’Kabukatukade’, who is also Abgaal,” the report said.

The report also said that ammunition supplied to Somalia’s army have been leaked in large quantities to arms markets. Weapons and ammunition not sold at a market during the day are taken back for storage in garages and houses owned by Somalia army officers, the report said.

“Al-Shabaab are known to frequent the market to purchase weapons and ammunition and were easily identifiable by the salesmen there,” the report said.

Somalia’s government has not responded publicly to the report and did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expert at Davidson College, wrote in a new paper on al-Shabab being published Monday in the CTC Sentinal, Westpoint’s anti-terrorism publication, that al-Shabab has been weakened as a political movement and will not be able to establish an Islamic state, but that it’s secret service — “Amniyat” — can still unleash devastating attacks against African Union forces and the Somali government.

In Friday’s attack, a speeding car full of explosives rammed into a barricade erected by soldiers protecting the presidential palace, causing an explosion and sending plumes of smoke into the sky. Amid the mayhem, gunmen chanting “God is great” then moved toward a second gate and tried to force their way into the complex.The Globe and Mail

MoS Moments of Silence

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

Designation of Al-Shabaab

When our world changed forever

Al-Shabaab

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

SOMALI REPUBLICANS

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Somalia

About Us

The Foundation is dedicated to networking like-minded Somalis opposed to the terrorist insurgency that is plaguing our beloved homeland and informing the international public at large about what is really happening throughout the Horn of Africa region.

Al-Qaida in Somalia. ...

We Are Winning the War on Terrorism in Horn of Africa

The threat is from violent extremists who are a small minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the threat is real. They distort Islam. They kill man, woman and child; Christian and Hindu, Jew and Muslim. They seek to create a repressive caliphate. To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for.